Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ (Figueres, Girona, 1904–1989).
“King Henry V (a),” 1971. From the series “Much Ado about Shakespeare II.”
Color etching and drypoint on Japanese paper.
Signed and numbered in pencil 226/250.
Printed by: Ateliers Rigal, Paris.
Publisher: Éditions Graphiques Internationales.
Bibliography: Ralf Michler and Lutz W. Löpsinger, Salvador Dalí: Catalogue Raisonné of Etchings and Mixed-Media Prints, 1924–1980, Prestel, 1994, no. 402; Albert Field, *The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí*, 1996, ref. 71-1-B.
It has slight, isolated spots on the margins of the paper, which do not affect the image.
Measurements: 17.5 x 13 cm (print size); 45 x 31.5 cm (paper size).

Created in 1971, this work belongs to *Much Ado about Shakespeare II*, a series of sixteen original prints in which Salvador Dalí reinterprets characters and works by the famous English playwright through his unique surrealist imagination. This print is dedicated to Henry V, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s historical drama. The composition features an enigmatic, anthropomorphic figure approaching a reclining character within a barely sketched architectural setting. Through a drawing of extraordinary finesse, constructed with energetic lines and delicate chromatic accents, Dalí transforms the literary reference into a dreamlike scene. Imaginative freedom, anatomical distortions, and narrative ambiguity reflect his ability to translate the great themes of world literature into the language of Surrealism.

A leading figure of Surrealism, Salvador Dalí trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid and joined the Parisian Surrealist movement in the late 1920s. His paranoiac-critical method and his universe of dreamlike images contributed decisively to renewing the language of the avant-garde. Beginning in the 1940s, he expanded his explorations into classicism, science, religion, and literature, developing a body of work that encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture, film, and graphic art. His work is represented in institutions such as MoMA in New York, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, as well as the Dalí Theater-Museum in Figueres.